Laudator Temporis Acti

John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), A Song of the Country, stanzas 1-3:

Away from the roar and the rattle,
  The dust and the din of the town,
Where to live is to brawl and to battle,
  Till the strong treads the weak man down!
Away to the bonnie green hills
  Where the sunshine sleeps on the brae,
And the heart of the greenwood thrills
  To the hymn of the bird on the spray.

Away from the smoke and the smother,
  The veil of the dun and the brown,
The push and the plash and the pother,
  The wear and the waste of the town!
Away where the sky shines clear,
  And the light breeze wanders at will,
And the dark pine-wood nods near
  To the light-plumed birch on the hill.

Away from the whirling and wheeling,
  And steaming above and below,
Where the heart has no leisure for feeling,
  And the thought has no quiet to grow.
Away where the clear brook purls,
  And the hyacinth droops in the shade,
And the wing of the fern uncoils
  Its grace in the depth of the glade.